In 1930, this remarkable stone and shell carved gope was photographed by Paul Wirz inside a men's house. That photograph is included here and is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When women married, they brought a gope from their family's men's house to their husband, who placed it in his clan's shrine. This explains the appearance of distinctly different styles of gope among similar looking groups of boards seen in photographs by Wirz and others.

Provenance:
Lewis/Wara Gallery, Seattle, 2003
Christie's Amsterdam. September 12, 2002
Lucien Van de Velde, Antwerp
Thomas Schultze-Westrum

Publishing History:
Robert Welsch, Virginia-Lee Webb, Sebastian Haraha. Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art and Society in the Papuan Gulf. New Hampshire, Hood Museum of Art, 2006:72 (Fig.119,120).

Exhibition History:
Neuchâtel. Art océanien. Musée d'Ethnographie de Neuchâtel, 1970: 84, catalogue number 1576.
Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York October 24, 2006 - December 2, 2007.